3.5/5 ★ – Soulciopath's review of Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Between the innate satisfaction of obliterating Nazi garbage and an interesting well-made world following a hypothetical fascist victory in WW2, the game is rather mid. The carefully constructed worldbuilding lends to a scary and immersive experience, fleshing out the expected horrors of the now dominant Nazi surveillance states all over the world in possession of threatening advanced technology antithetical to their overengineered real-life attempts at advancements. Praises for the world aside, the combat has a number of issues. While it does share some similarities with DOOM, the combat loop is much more deliberate and encourages you to approach encounters in a calculated manner as your character isn't remotely the bullet sponge they are in most FPS games. Unfortunately, due to occasionally questionable enemy placements, lack of enemy variety, and clunkily designed bosses, the ways in which you can approach encounters don't feel as sandboxy as I feel they were intended, being repetitive and frustrating more than anything else. There are some funny character interactions as the game isn't quite as dark as its predecessors, but for the most part it's also unremarkable in the character department, especially BJ our mc. The story is engaging enough with some neat ideas and the levels are actually pretty memorable and well designed, but the combat certainly doesn't have me running back for more.